N.J. 'storm czar' defends Christie

Chris Christie’s so-called storm czar defended the New Jersey governor’s administration Monday against accusations that it played political games in allocating Hurricane Sandy recovery funds, stressing that the process was fair and objective.

Marc Ferzan’s briefing with reporters followed a claim by Dawn Zimmer, the Democratic mayor of Hoboken, N.J., that Christie administration officials pressured her to accelerate the approval process for a redevelopment project or risk recovery funding following the storm.

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Zimmer’s allegations are the latest headache for Christie, a potential Republican 2016 presidential candidate who is still reeling from revelations that some of his close aides apparently engineered a traffic jam near the George Washington Bridge as part of an alleged political vendetta.

Ferzan described to reporters how the state helped direct millions of dollars in aid after Sandy hit the East Coast in October 2012. He said many cities requested more financial assistance than was available.

“I’m scratching my head a little bit about any community that’s getting the short end of the stick, other than to say that I understand we’ve got very limited resources at our disposal,” said Ferzan, who is the the executive director of Christie’s Office of Recovery and Rebuilding.

She said that the pressure over the redevelopment project came from two administration officials, including Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. Hoboken has received just a fraction of the assistance it has requested.

The governor’s office, Guadagno and the other official have denied the allegations.

Ferzan described the management of Sandy recovery funds — which flowed from multiple federal sources with various strings attached — as an enormous task, and said he has confidence in how New Jersey has handled it. He added that the administration’s priority has been programs assisting individual homeowners and renters.

“There’s some suggestion out there that Hoboken has not received grant funding that other communities have,” Ferzan said. “We’ve tried to have an objective process. … I think we’ve accomplished that.”

“I’m not going to speak to what the mayor did or did not say,” Ferzan said. “That’s her prerogative, whatever claims she wants to make.”

Zimmer has stood by her allegations and said Sunday that she met with the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey for several hours at the office’s request to share supporting documents. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to confirm the meeting.